This Friday's Apple links include not one, but two iPhone-related stories of …

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Some people have already had to send in their iPhones for repair, but when they get them back, Apple is sending along a helpful "tool." Flickr user Keith M. has posted a photograph of the Official iPhone Tool and it's been making its rounds around the web today. Wow, thanks Apple. I could never have found something so useful on my own!

That iPhone update earlier this week contained a little more than just security fixes, it turns out. Apple didn't tell us about them, but the company snuck in a couple of features that people had been asking for, such as a "BCC" field in the e-mail app.

Daniel Jalkut has been slaving away on MarsEdit 2, but release a small point update to the software this week. Technorati tags are now listed alphabetically in the dialog box and the default comment status on new blogs, for example. if you're a MarsEdit user, check it out.

Speaking of software, the much-revered Mike Bombich has released a new piece of software called Bootpicker (which, oddly, is already in version 1.3). Bootpicker makes choosing your operating system when booting up much prettier. He does, however, outline several security concerns with the software, but we have to give him props for being up front about it.

Microsoft's PowerPoint recently celebrated its 20th birthday this week. We know many Mac users are already faithful Keynote converts, but PowerPoint is still pretty ubiquitous in the office world, and so we salute it. (No comment on which finger(s) we are saluting with.)

If the over-packaged paperclip wasn't enough to fill your stupid Apple news quota for the day, Gizmodo tells the harrowing tale of a man who got a vasectomy in order to get an iPhone. After blowing his entire toy budget for the year before the iPhone's release, Mr. Johnson (no joke) apparently went and bought an iPhone anyway "without wife clearance." She made him return it, and he was naturally very torn up. You almost don't even need to read the end to figure out what happened, but you should anyway.

I'm in a great mood this afternoon after a pretty blah day, so I happily wish you all a great August weekend. Try not to over-extend yourselves in the heat, assuming you even choose to leave the house and face the daystar. I know I haven't yet today.

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui